Facts on early abatements, writes former Mayor McCann

Former Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann, a school board memberJersey Journal file photo

Earl Morgan is wrong on the facts. When I became mayor of Jersey City in 1981, I never even had one conversation with Herb Glimcher, and that is the same today, 32 years later.

The first thing I did was get rid of Herb Glimcher by looking for a developer who could do the project. Up until then, the Glimchers built strip shopping centers. In 1982, I was able to convince Mel Simon, the third largest mall developer in the United States to come to Jersey City to be a part of the redevelopment.

We needed a housing developer and again was able to convince Sam LeFrak, the largest developer/owner of housing in the country. By early 1983, we had our development team for the Northern Jersey City Development project, as we called it at that time.

Glimcher held a nominal position but was no longer involved. We applied for the UDAG grant of $40 million for infrastructure and the parking garage of the mall. We lent the money to Simon and the Lefrak Organization without interest. It also involved the planning for a new PATH station and a light rail train system to go through the project along with the extension of Washington Street to the Hoboken border.

In 1982, the city and NJ Transit started developing the plan and funding for the light rail system. Newport started, along with demolition, in 1984. In 1985, I lost re-election to Anthony Cucci, who opposed the development. Up until that time there was very little talk about tax abatements, although I was willing to consider them for the office development but not the housing.

While I was out of office, Cucci, in the first week, removed his largest contributor ($125,000) from the development project area, allowing Jerry Mecca's trucking terminal to stay. Lefrak convinced Cucci that it needed government financing to build housing.

Together they received financing from the State of New Jersey that required 15 percent of the units to be "affordable" and a tax abatement. I had opposed both. Cucci, along with his Council President Glenn Cunningham, gave them the start of the tax abatement craze in Jersey City. Cucci then had his second largest contributor ($110,000) named the parking garage manager, Harwood Parking Systems. Up to then parking was free.

I came back into office in 1989, defeating Cucci and Cunningham, who opposed each other. These were the facts. Morgan, who was very friendly with both Cucci and Cunningham, never mentions their names in the entire article or about why there is a trucking terminal there and the garage charges for parking.